Kilroy Defeats Stivers in 15th Congressional Race

Democrats have taken a seat from House Republicans after the counting of provisional ballots in a race in central Ohio. Unofficial results Sunday showed that Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy beat Republican Steve Stivers by more than 2,000 votes.

Flanked by bundled up, sign-waving supporters, Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy held a brief new conference outside the Franklin County Board of Elections Sunday night. Unofficial results released a few hours earlier showed Kilroy had beaten Republican Steve Stivers by more than 2,000 votes. The final outcome hinged on a month-long dispute over provisional ballots that were only counted December 6th. Kilroy says Stivers called to congratulate her, saying he would not ask for a recount.

“We have a lot of work to do when I get to Washington and I want to make sure that I hit the ground running,” Kilroy said. “We’re reaching out to Rep. Pryce to make sure that issues that constituents have brought to the attention of the Representative of Ohio 15th can continue to be worked on that we can have a smooth transition.”

Kilroy narrowly lost election to the 15th Congressional District seat in 2006 to Republican Deborah Pryce. Pryce chose not to seek re-election.

Prospective Ohio drivers would see added training requirements and the Bureau of Motor Vehicles would be allowed to accept credit and debit cards under a state transportation budget that easily cleared the Ohio House on Tuesday.